August Apricot Archive 2005

Nutrition Education at Elk Grove Unified School District
Where Healthy Minds and Bodies are Created

    Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) is the second fastest growing school district in the nation. More than 60,000 students attend the 59 schools, not to mention the hundreds of new families that move into the district every month. School Nutrition Specialist and Apricot Ambassador Anne Gaffney, along with the Food and Nutrition Services Department of the EGUSD are responsible for providing students with well-balanced and healthy meals, serving over six million lunches annually.

New for the 2005-2006 school year is the district’s

"Pyramid Zone Menu"

The new "Pyramid Zone" menu is based on the USDA's new food guidance system and expands from two entrée choices to five entrées each day. It includes a variety of non-meat selections as well as fresh fruit, canned apricots and other canned fruit, frozen fruit bars, fresh veggies, 100% fresh fruit juice, and milk. To help market the new "Pyramid Zone" lunch menu, colorful pictures of the fruits and vegetables offered each day are posted around the perimeter of the cafeteria serving line. These pictures are then changed daily to correspond with the day's menu.

    In addition to serving healthy school lunches, EGUSD has developed nutrition education that links the classroom with the cafeteria. SHAPE (Shaping Health As Partners in Education) is modeled after the California Department of Education's "SHAPE California" program, and includes a nutrition education in-service for elementary teachers. A grade-specific curriculum is provided at the in-service, as well as quarterly "SHAPE newsletters," recipes, interactive activities students can take home, and access to a resource room containing the latest nutrition education videos, storybooks, cookbooks, and cooking utensils.

    Nutrition Education steps out of the classroom and into the kitchen during educational tours of the district’s 40,000-sq.-foot kitchen where 17,000 elementary school lunches are made daily. Touring the food center allows students to witness the process of meal production firsthand while also experiencing valuable lessons in healthful eating. At the food center, students rotate through three areas; a nutrition lesson with SHAPE-a Roo (Food and Nutrition Service’s educational tool), a walking tour through the production kitchen/freezer/warehouse area, and a sensory evaluation experience where students taste test new menu items.

    EGUSD believes that schools are a place where healthy minds and bodies are created and that the Food and Nutrition Services Department is an integral part of creating that environment.

For more information regarding EGUSD’s “Pyramid Zone” menu or nutrition education program, please contact Anne Gaffney or Shannan Young in Food and Nutrition Services at (916) 686-7735 ext. 7863

You can print more copies of our Apricot Archive directly from our web site at:
www.apricotproducers.com.
Print out this issue and/or previous issues.

Copyright © 2005 Echo Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.